Airie
An exploration of digital therapeutics and smart devices for children with asthma.
Airie was my thesis project spanning my senior year at Arizona State University. Throughout the project, I interviewed over 20 adults with childhood asthma and parents of young children with asthma.
Role
Visual + Product Designer
Timeline
August 2019 - May 2020
Process
Background
Over 20 million people in the United States have asthma, and nearly 9 million of them are children. According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, the annual economic cost of asthma was more than $81.9 billion including medical costs and loss of work and school days.
Problem Space
There is currently no cure for asthma, though treatments often involve self-monitoring and making sure the condition is well managed. Keeping a record of “peak flow” measurements and symptoms is a way to keep track of asthma management. This requires patients or their caretakers to self-monitor and be diligent about tracking asthma attacks and symptoms, as well as medication usage. There are some existing applications and solutions to help patients with self-monitoring, but asthma is most prevalent in children that are likely too young to be digitally self-monitoring.
Research
User Interviews
As previously mentioned, there is no cure for asthma, only treatments. Part of treatment for asthmatics of all ages generally includes an Asthma Care Plan that specifies how to monitor symptoms, how to identify and avoid asthma triggers, what kind of medication the patient should take, and when to take action to call their doctor or emergency services.
My two main research groups were teens and adults that have asthma and parents of children with asthma. The teens and adults helped me to empathize with the everyday impact of asthma from a first-person point of view, while the parents of children with asthma helped me to understand the needs and pain points of my primary user group. I conducted twenty-five interviews with people who have been diagnosed with asthma from ages 8 - 68, and twenty interviews with parents of young children with asthma.
User Personas
In order to get a better understanding of the needs, motivations, and pain points of the users of the airie system, I created three user personas of potential users.
Key Insights
Key insights indicated a considerable financial and emotional toll on both patients and their parents, the parents track their children’s asthma more than the patients did for themselves, and they share common user goals.
Solution
The three components of the airie system are a wearable smart device, a smart inhaler, and a mobile application.
The device is a smart watch that monitors exercise, movement, heart rate, and blood oxidation. It syncs with the application to provide real-time updates and track asthma attacks based on heart rate and oxidation levels.
The smart inhaler measures peak flow and medication usage and dosage. A built-in spacer chamber makes breathing in the medication easier for younger users. It is also able to be synced to the application for data analysis.
The airie application collects and analyzes data from the smart devices. It also sends notifications for reminders, missed medications, or irregular symptoms or patterns arise.
Design Process
USER JOURNEY MAP
USER FLOWS
LOW FIDELITY WIREFRAMES
HIGH FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
